Costco Changes $1.50 Hot Dog Combo for the First Time in Over 40 Years

The price of the combo, which has a cult following, will remain the same amid the change

Costco just made a change to its classic $1.50 Hot Dog Combo.

The wholesale retailer will now allow customers to enjoy the quarter-pound, all-beef hot dog with another drink option: bottled water. The news was reported by multiple outlets and marks the first change to the much-loved combo in more than 40 years. 

The Costco food court formerly only allowed people to pair their hot dog with a 20-oz. soda. Customers could previously grab water with cups from the soda fountain, but this change marks the first time they will be able to choose bottled water as their hot dog accompaniment.

Per USA Today, the water will be a Kirkland Signature 16.9-oz. bottle. 

An Instagram user shared a photo of the new offering over the weekend, stating “I love that Costco is now also offering the hot dog combo with water!”

A viral Reddit thread also started six months ago revealed that Costco shoppers were presented with bottled water as a drink option at checkout when ordering the combo.

“I’m thinking if I ever want 2 hotdogs, I can get 1 soda and 1 bottled water. then stash the bottle for later if I need it,” one commenter wrote. 

“Many times I’ve refused the cup and spent the 25 cents on the bottled water. So this is welcome,” another said.

In 2022, Costco committed to the $1.50 Hot Dog Combo price.

Then-CFO Richard Galanti shared in a presentation on financial results at the time that the brand was not seeking to recover funds potentially lost through the inexpensive meal. 

“We really don’t look at it that way,” he explained on the call, per MarketWatch, with other areas of the business doing well enough to “be more aggressive” in other parts of the store.

“Or, as you mentioned, hold the price on the hot dog and the soda a little longer — forever,” he said.

In another interview that year with CNBC, then-CEO Craig Jelinek gave a one-word reply on whether he would raise the combo’s price: “No.” He also said in 2018 that he went to Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal and said the chain needed to stop selling the hot dog for $1.50.

“And he said, ‘If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out,’” Jelinek recalled, per 425 Business.

The business then built multiple manufacturing plants to create Kirkland Signature hot dogs to accommodate the price.

The hot dog combo has long had a cult following. 

In 2024, Cleveland-based content creator Sir Yacht (whose real name is Joey Kinsley) posted a viral video eating “nothing but the Costco hot dog meal for one week.”

The content creator ate 29 $1.50 hot dogs for the week. He said it was “absof–kinglutely” worth “paying $1.50 for a glizzy and drink,” highlighting that he paid $43.50 for a week of food versus the average weekly millennial spending of $164.82.

“What I’m really gonna miss most is not just consuming glizzies, but spending only $1.50 on a meal,” Kinsley said at the time. “That’s something that’s completely unheard of in 2024.”

But he said that he is “not a nutritionist and doesn’t recommend anyone doing this. I also walked 10-15 miles a day, drank a gallon of water a day and took daily vitamins that may or may not have been the Flintstone dinosaur ones.”

Costco recently also added a Caramel Churro Sundae to its food court menu, featuring the brand’s soft serve in either vanilla, chocolate or swirl, mixed with caramel sauce and topped with crunchy churro bites. It is reportedly being sold for a limited time for $2.99